1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for attachment to a vehicle for the transport of injured people.
2. Prior Art
Mass casualty events, such as wartime battles, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks, often require immediate medical care for large numbers of victims. Emergency treatment of the victims is usually initiated either near the site where the injuries occur or while the victim is in transit to a permanent medical facility. The quality of care, as well as the number of patients that can be cared for, depends greatly on the capability of the vehicles and personnel tasked with responding to the emergency. Ideally, such vehicles would be capable of carrying multiple patients, provide sufficient room for an attendant to initiate medical care while the patient(s) are in transit, and be adaptable to suit a variety of emergency situations.
One such emergency situation is that of a terrorist attack, or other mass casualty incident, taking place in a densely populated urban environment. Following such an event, traffic jams and pedestrian congestion can make small city streets impassible to standard size ambulances. Additionally, fallen debris can create off-road like conditions on top of normally smooth paved surfaces. Such conditions call for the use of small off-road utility vehicles that are more maneuverable than full size ambulances. These vehicles are generally short and narrow in order to increase maneuverability in tight quarters and over uneven terrain. They are often light pickup trucks, golf carts, parking enforcement vehicles or other similarly sized platforms. Once these vehicles reach the injured, their narrow width restricts both the number of patients that can be transported as well as the onboard working space provided to the medical attendant.
Prior art stretcher mount systems are known that allow for the transport of multiple patients, but they make use of cantilevered platforms attached to the side or rear of a vehicle. Such systems reduce a vehicle's mobility by increasing its effective width, and by negatively impacting weight distribution. Alternatively, there exist multi-patient transport systems that remain within the vehicle's normal envelope or “footprint”, but in doing so eliminate the space necessary for an attendant to provide adequate medical care while a patient is in transit.
It would be beneficial to the victims of such an incident if there were a stretcher support system that could be attached to these small utility vehicles that allowed for the simultaneous evacuation and medical treatment of multiple patients, without negatively affecting vehicle maneuverability. While vehicle dimensions may prevent a support system from totally achieving this goal, it is possible to have a system for transporting multiple patients that can be rapidly configured for either optimal onboard working space or maximum vehicle maneuverability. If such a system existed, small utility vehicles could travel down narrow city streets more easily than either full size ambulances or utility vehicles with outboard racks. Once on the scene, the support system could be quickly reconfigured for optimal en route medical care. Multiple patients could then be loaded and provided with medical treatment while being evacuated from the site of injury.
An additional emergency situation in which medical personnel would be aided by the provision of a light vehicle with an adaptable stretcher mounting system is that of an attack involving the use of chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons. In such an event, emergency service coordinators generally construct an artificial zone around the site of the attack that is considered contaminated. Emergency workers are then tasked with entering this “hot” zone and extracting injured and contaminated victims. While in the hot zone, these workers generally wear protective suits to shield themselves from the harmful agent(s).
Though some victims are simply dragged out by hand, there is an increasing dependency on small utility vehicles to transport those who are injured and/or contaminated away from the site of the attack. Emergency personnel wearing bulky protective clothing have a difficult time providing adequate medical care in the limited space offered by the stretcher mount systems currently used aboard narrow utility vehicles. It would be highly beneficial to the victims of this type of attack if there were a system that could be attached to small emergency vehicles that allowed multiple patients to be transported away from the contaminated area while receiving care from a medical attendant wearing a protective suit. It would be additionally advantageous if the stretcher mounting system could be collapsed to either exploit the base vehicle's full maneuverability or simply to minimize the size of the vehicle for storage purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,702,142 discloses a set of structures and supports intended to allow two medical attendants, one patient on a spineboard, one ambulatory patient, and a driver to travel aboard a small utility vehicle. The invention provides an improved method of evacuating injured athletes off of a playing field. The supports are arranged so that one patient on a stretcher or spineboard can be placed longitudinally along the passenger side of the vehicle. An attendant is then located near the front passenger seat of the vehicle, but turned to face rearward. An additional attendant is placed behind the driver seat, facing sideways, towards the passenger side of the vehicle. An ambulatory patient is then placed at the rear driver's side of the vehicle, facing rearwards. This system is limited in that it only allows for the transport of one patient on a stretcher. This invention is not ideal in the case of a mass casualty event primarily because it was intended to be used in situations where there are very few injuries and relatively large numbers of medical personnel. This results in space aboard the vehicle that could be used for an additional patient, instead being occupied by a second attendant seat. An additional disadvantage of the system is that it requires the use of multiple straps to restrain the patient and stretcher on the vehicle. In an event where there are many severely injured people, it is important that the stretchers be loaded as quickly as possible. The time required to attach and tighten the straps may be detrimental to the survival of the injured parties. Vehicles responding to mass casualty situations would be better suited by a system that maximized the number of critically injured that could be transported.